Behind the Music : Singer Songwriter Héllena

Born and raised in a small village in Greece, Héllena always felt the need to move to a big city and chase her musical dreams, which she did in 2005 by relocating to Athens where she took Piano and Modern singing lessons. In 2009 she started writing her own material. Héllena recorded her self titled EP in 2010 at Artemis studios. In late 2011 she decided to take a leap of faith and moved to the UK to work on her debut album with the MTV award winning Producer Stereo Mike. The first single borne out of the collaboration was “Don’t Change”. This set the scene for what’s about to come. Living in London for only a short time, Héllena made it into the top 20 on MTV Unsigned, gaining 3 Gold awards on BEAT100 for her song “Don’t Change”. Héllena had the privilege in March 2013 of performing alongside Stereo Mike at SXSW festival. Early 2014 saw Héllena reach the heights of no2 in the ReverbNation’s Soul/R’N’B charts for London. Héllena is now fast establishing a strong online fanbase as well as performing with her new band at live gigs. May 2014 sees the new single “Dream Big” from her forthcoming album “Body and Soul” being released. This Singer/Songwriter is being tipped for future success and keep your eyes peeled to this talented diverse artist. Héllena has come to the attention of the BBC with an appearance on BBC London 94,9 fm Simon Lederman show in early April 2014. –

INTERVIEW:
Jax: You’ve had a recent name change from Helena Micy to Hellena. What promoted you to change your name?
Hellena: I changed my name for many different reasons but the most important ones are that most of the people were pronouncing “Micy” the wrong way and that now my name is more Hellenic…Greek

Jax: How are you adjusting your name change on social media, your web site and across all your previous advertising?
Hellena: It takes hard work to change your social networks and everything. For example I had to create a whole new Page on Facebook and lost the 2200 fans I managed to gather there in 2 years…so it’s not that fun..but it had to be done.

Jax: Do you feel that this will confuse your current fans?
Hellena: People need time to adjust to the new name now…but it’s not totally different from the one I had before so I guess everything will be as it’s supposed to be in few weeks time.

Jax: How do you feel that this change will benefit your career?
Hellena: I feel that I will benefit from the name change in the long run. It’s memorable, easy to pronounce, unique and it’s 100% me. It feels right…and when something feels right, I go with my guts.

JAX: What have you always wanted to do if your ever given the chance?
Hellena: Singing… and thankfully I’ve been given this chance already. :)

Jax: Would you consider yourself a spiritual person?
Hellena: I believe we’re all the same and that we should treat each other equally. I also try to surrender to the unknown…so hopefully I am a spiritual person.

Jax: Tell me a story about your song. Why you wrote it. Explain the meaning. What does it mean to you? Is it about someone?
Hellena: I think that nobody can find contentment and live a happy life without Dreaming. I love merging real life with imagination. It’s in my DNA. I am personally convinced that imagination and real life are somehow connected. Your thoughts become your reality.
I wrote “Dream Big” during a very difficult period in my life. I wasn’t able to dream at all during this time and I needed something to keep me going and keep me alive. My lyrics for “Dream Big” certainly did. They somehow saved me.

JAX: Do you believe that our journeys are routed by fate or are we predestined to live eternally by reincarnation learning as we move thru time and meeting up with the same souls continuously?
Hellena: I really don’t know. I just try to enjoy life as much as possible and go after my dreams. I really don’t think about next or past lives. I am more concerned about the “NOW”.

JAX: Have you every heard of the power of positive attraction? It is where we attract what ever we think of. If we want success, then we only think of only success. If we think of what we don’t want to happen, we can attract that too. What do you think about the concept? Have you used it in your journey? If so how and did it work?
Hellena: Yes I totally believe that. I’ve seen it happening countless times in my life so I try to think positive as much as possible and go with the flow which is not easy by the way since I am a control freak… hehehe

JAX: I know what you mean about losing inspiration for dreaming. I am a big dreamer, it let’s me create the world I share with others. Things can take my inspiration like people, sadness, exhaustion, burn out….. What happened to cause your block?
Hellena: Many things happened back then which I don’t want to remember since I am in a really good page of my life at the moment, but these things that happened to me…made me stronger and better..helped me evolve as an artist and as a human being too so I am thankful they happened to me in the end. :)

Jax: I was just recently answering an email to a reader who is feeling depressed and in a rut. She has lost her inspiration and her days have become a routine. Can you offer any ideas or advise for her?
Hellena: Sometimes when you’re depressed you cannot push things because they will only get worse. I think acceptance of the situation and belief that things will get better as they always do is the best option but I am not maybe the right person to ask. Hehe